Indian Railways Plans To Lease, Sell Coaches To Private Parties: Here's Why
Indian Railways is planning a policy to lease, sell train coaches to private parties in order to run theme-based cultural-religious, and tourist circuit trains. In a statement on Saturday, September 11, the national transporter said that an Executive Director (ED) level committee has been constituted by the Railway Ministry to formulate the policy and terms and conditions for the project.
With this, the railway authorities seek to leverage the scope of tourism activities such as integration of services, marketing, hospitality, reach the customer base, identification of tourist circuits, among others. (Also Read: Fare Of Indian Railways' AC 3-Tier Economy Class Coach 8% Lesser Than Regular 3AC )
According to Indian Railways, the features of the proposed model are as follows:
- The train coaches will be leased as per the desired configuration of interested parties. The bare shells may also be taken on lease and the outright purchase of coaches can be done.
- A minor redevelopment of coaches as well as trading of trains or third party advertising inside the coaches are allowed
- The leasing will be done for a minimum period of five years and is extendable till the codal life of coaches.
- The private parties interested in the project need to develop a business model - routes, itinerary, tariff etc.
- Indian Railways will levy the haulage charges, nominal stabling charges, and lease charges. No haulage will be permitted for maintenance runs.
- For the interested parties, a simple registration process will be available based upon the eligibility criteria, according to the Railway Ministry.
